Shades have been on my mind all day today, and I don’t mean the kind you put on your face or on your windows. I am talking about shades of color, and specifically, shades of pink as today was the grand pick-up date of my new Felt B-10 custom Barbie-painted-pink tri bike. Customized with my life motto, joie de vivre (ok, I stole it from the French), and my “Trainer Trish” logo, I was picking up my dream bike. I woke up with a mixture of anxiety and excitement for the equivalent of bike birth.
Imagine my dismay when I walked into the bike shop after a month of waiting to find a magenta bike awaiting me. Magenta, if you don’t know your shades of pink well, is NOT Barbie-pepto-bismal-happy-pink. Thankfully, the bike shop folks had already arranged a re-paint from the custom shop in California for the shade of pink to be corrected upon my return from Ironman France.
Sometimes life doesn’t unfold exactly how we want it to or plan it to, and sometimes it’s just off-track by a smidgen, or a shade. It is openness to these different shades of life that will ultimately bright more depth to the colors that we live and experience.
I am off to race Ironman France in less than a week, and no shades, changes or hurdles in my life will keep me from living my dream, clashing shades of pink and all. Moreover, the bonus in unexpected shades of life is that they often come with an upside. For me, I will now attract spectators and French fans all around with my equipment now fully covering the entire color spectrum for pink shades. It’s almost a guaranteed smile from every person I will see.
Are you embracing the shades of change and challenge that run deep into your life ,and are you seeing the opportunity that lies in every new color of life that comes your way?